I have a 2001 XKR convertible (LHD) with the milky wood that is starting to crack. It's silver with an all black interior (except for the wood). I'm leaning towards carbon fiber, but the only place I've been able to find that sells it is Jag XK8 and XKR interiors (XK8 and XKR Interiors). I've emailed them 3 times and I've received zero replies. Are they still in business? Any secrets on how to contact them?

Any other options I'm missing? I'm also investigating doing my own skinning, but that's bound to be a lot of work for questionable results.

 

I have a 2001 XKR convertible (LHD) with the milky wood that is starting to crack. It's silver with an all black interior (except for the wood). I'm leaning towards carbon fiber, but the only place I've been able to find that sells it is Jag XK8 and XKR interiors (XK8 and XKR Interiors). I've emailed them 3 times and I've received zero replies. Are they still in business? Any secrets on how to contact them?

Any other options I'm missing? I'm also investigating doing my own skinning, but that's bound to be a lot of work for questionable results.

 

I see from the website that XK8 & XKR Interiors is part of Myrtle Productions based in Ramsgate in south east England.

When I've dealt with Myrtle Productions for veneer repairs the work has been good but they were always very slow to respond to emails and I usually phoned instead. The number for Myrtle is +44 (0) 1843 844962.

Graham

 

I would have thought that Hydro-dipping might be the way to go. No personal experience, but have seen various videos etc. There must be places in the US who could do that for you.

Maybe : http://www.liquidcustoms.ca/about

 

I've never done it, but wrapping might be a quick way to see if you like the carbon fiber look. I think you will. I love Jag woods. I used to sit in my XJ40 Majestic at night with the courtesy lights on and just gaze at the beauty of the wood. My XJ-S also had beautiful wood. But the ultra sleek modern look of the XKs is really complemented by the carbon fiber. At least IMHO.

 

If you check out post #195, you can see the Gunmetal Carbon Fiber I have around my shifter. I am going for an all grey/charcoal look with my XKR, but am waiting for the weird humidity/heat to be gone to do the dash etc... I love the look, and I like that it is removable should I want to go back to the wood.

Any place that wraps cars should have good CF. Make sure it is coated, as there are lots of places that use cheap quality...

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...175091/page10/

 

Thanks for the input. I've been investigated all of these options. I'm also thinking about doing a custom paint job on the wood and refinishing them with some kind of black/grey stain. I'm also considering DIY vs having something done professionally.

I'll try to give Myrtle productions a call.

 

you could also look into hydrographic painting. If you search the XK/XKR forum, you will see some of the engine covers that were hydrographically painted to look like they were cf

 

If you are interested in having your current wood panels repaired, google "woodworkers hobby club" along with your city's name and follow up with the information that turns up. Most cities have one or more retired woodworkers clubs and it is amazing what those guys can do with automotive dashboard wood panels. They have decades of experience and usually own every woodworkers' tool known to man. Our local club restored one of my vehicle's wood dashes back in the early 1990s to better-than-new and refused to take any money from me as payment. So when I showed up to retrieve my freshly-restored wood panels a couple of weeks after I had dropped them off, I brought several pieces of nice walnut, maple, and oak lumber with me which they gladly accepted as a donation. I still got the better end of the deal, though....

A year or two later those same guys designed and built a gorgeous custom jewelry box out of some teak lumber I brought them. It matched our bedroom furniture and I gave it to my wife as an anniversary present that year. She still cherishes that jewelry box all these years later....

Well worth your time and effort to do some google searching and see what turns up....

 

Cool idea Jon89. That's a new one.

 

This is always an option. Full carbon interior. Debating on doing the window sill sumiliar to the Maserati. I'll get some pics installed soon. Stuck in China at the moment.

 

Looks awesome. I especially like the symmetrical pattern of the weave.

 

FrickenJag, do you have a full carbon solution for the X100s? Or would you skin a set of wood panels if they were provided to you?

 

Sure. I can do it. Understand, it does take some time to do this properly. Sand. Prep. prepreg. Bag. Vacuum. Cure. Remove. Trim. Clean. Sand. Clear. But it does come out nice. I'm stuck in China until mid/end of August but I can figure up a price if you are interested. 👍🏻

 

I think carbon fiber is to cars today as paisley was to shirts in the 1960s Same for matte paint.

Doug

 

Mmmm. Paisley. I hadn't thought of that.....

I understand that sentiment. However, my milky wood just doesn't match with the rest of the interior. I'm also thinking about stripping the finish and staining the wood in a dark grey-to-black. I'm going to play with that in photoshop to see how it looks.

 

Not sure if I should start a new thread, but I thought I would document my trim change saga. Of course, nothing is ever as easy as you think it is going to be.

I want a darker interior, but I don't want to wreck the original wood (beyond the existing cracks). So I ordered new trim pieces piecemeal off of Ebay. My idea was that I could use the new donor pieces as the substrate for carbon fiber, a new paint job, re-staining or as a trade in for pre-done carbon fibre pieces. Then I could put the original wood in a box in case I ever want to sell the car.

I also ordered some 3M Dinoc black simulated graphite vinyl. Bit cheezy, but I thought it would be a good way to try out the new look fairly cheaply before biting the (expensive) bullet on real graphite. I also bought chrome trim rings for the gauges and a chrome shifter surround, and a custom black wood shifter knob.

To see how things looked, I started wrapping the panels in the Dinoc. It's not as easy as it seems it should be, especially on the corners. Even when heated, the vinyl tends to bunch and wrinkle. I knew it would mostly be hidden when installed, though, so overall, I was pretty happy with it. One key is that you should start folding over on the most complicated, rounded side. This gives you the best ability and flexibility to maintain a contiguous piece of vinyl without having to cut and splice due to bunching. I made the mistake on the passenger side air vent of starting on the flat side, and I had to cut the vinyl and overlap it on the round side. It's noticeable but not terrible.

I got all of the pieces wrapped, and installed the rings. The silver on black looks really good. Then the other night I decided to start the install.

1. Dropped the glovebox - 6 screws, and a couple of leads. Went smoothly.
2. Popped off the airbag door. No issues.
3. Unbolted the airbag brackets and the airbag. No issues
4. Tried to pull out the airbag. The service manual says to unplug the connectors. Unfortunately, it wasn't obvious how to do that. I didn't want to wreck the connectors or the airbag, so I left it and posted to Jaguar Forums on how to disconnect them. But I was able to pull out the retaining straps and bracket from behind the airbag.
5. Checked the airbag door and strap assembly against the XK8 replacement I bought. DAMN! They changed the bracket. Totally different shape. Tried to use it anyway, but the bolts wouldn't go in. Something was interfering in the back. Now what?

This is where it gets interesting/sad.

I looked at both pieces to try to figure out how I could swap the brackets. Looked complicated. I went to eBay to see if I could find a panel that matched my original. All looked like the replacement one I already had. So back to the swap option. The rear of the panel is aluminum, with a formed aluminum plate attached to the back with some styrofoam filler down the center channel. The retaining straps go through slots in the formed plate running under the styrofoam. The aluminum plate is captured by three rivets along the bottom edge, and bent metal tabs at the top that go through slots in the cover aluminum. It looked like if I drilled out the rivets, I could hinge the plate up and remove it, allowing me to remove the straps.

So I bought a rivet gun and some rivets, and tried to drill out the original ones. They just spun, so I wound up cutting the rivets off with snipper pliers. Then I tried to hinge the plate open. But it was stuck, maybe with adhesive. Double DAMN.

I couldn't figure out what else to do so I started prying up the styrofoam. It is the toughest styrofoam I've ever seen, and luckily the adhesive was old enough that it started to unstick as I pried it. It took me about an hour with various pry bars and scrapers to pry it out. It cracked once, which was pretty amazing. Once I got it removed, I found that the straps were actually captured under the styrofoam with a metal bar threading through the loops and three lances in the sheetmetal, with VHB adhesive tape holding the bar down. I was able to pry the bar loose and slide it out, freeing the straps to pull through the slots between the plate and the cover. Whew!

This was done on the replacement airbag cover. I didn't want to wreck my original not knowing what I was doing. But now that I did the first one, the second one should be easy. Wrong again. They also must have changed the adhesive they used. Because it would not release. It was easily twice as strong as the adhesive on the first cover. Aargggh. I wound up destroying the styrofoam on my original. Very disappointing. Even trying to remove the bare adhesive is almost impossible. Anyway, I was able to finally get the straps out of it too. But now I only have one good styrofoam piece to play with. I'm currently figuring out options as to how I can mount the styrofoam but still make it reasonably easy to disassemble again if I have to.

Stay tuned.

PS. Sorry there are no pics. I'll try to add some in the next post.

 

Here are the pics from the disassembly.


This is the panel from my car.



The strap from the donor XK8 panel.



The donor panel after I swapped retention straps.



The difference of the rear attachment brackets. Totally different profile.





The intact styrofoam (small crack) peeled from the donor panel.



Donor panel with no styrofoam showing strap attach.

 

Here is the result of the first experiment with Dinoc. Also added a chrome shifter surround, polished black Supercharged wood shift knob, and chrome instrument bezels.


I also found a full leather wheel in Germany, so I replaced it too.

It's not perfect, but I like it better than the milky wood.

 

that is an improvement over faded wood
can you please post a pic of the supercharged shift knob? mine has the R shifter at the moment, and i don't like the colors...

i am on the hunt for an all leather wheel as well. mine has some worn areas by the wood, and again, once i do my dash to gunmetal, the wood will look weird.

bravo!